Basement Train Layout: Week 589

Sun, Nov 9, 2025 thru Sat, Nov 15, 2025

Sun, Nov 9, 2025

Special Guest: Josiah Andrews

Josiah Andrews and I traded locomotives today.
He stopped by to run some trains too.

Checking out Clinton Street Station Stop on the
Chicago "L" tracks

Checking out Oak Park Marion Street stop on the
UP Metra West Line

The two locomotives we traded - the AC600 for
the B40-8

Josiah brought some rolling stock and a few locomotives
to run on the layout today.

I ran the 1960s train with this heavy duty locomotive

I gave this locomotive to Josiah a long time ago.
He painted it and installed a decoder. It ran like a champ!

That 90 minutes went by really fast!

Mon, Nov 10, 2025

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair 6-8pm 2 hrs.

We started out checking out what was in this kit...

54' GSC Flat Cars (quantity 4)

I used the new locomotive Josiah traded with me
to run these flat cars over to Global 2

Now to get started on installing the power extender
in the CNW C40-8 Bachman 8526 locomotive

See the plug on the decoder for the power extender?

Here's the power extender plugged in the decoder

We had some difficulty putting on the shell...

...so we decided to retape all the wires.

It was a major overall of tucking in all the wires and
other parts

We think the head light was too high in the front of
the locomotive so we'll cut a channel for the light to
sit in so it will hopefully have clearance inside the cab

Well, we need to trim a bit more, but that will have
to wait until next week when we tackle this project
one more time.

Tue, Nov 11, 2025

No train activity today.

Wed, Nov 12, 2025

No train activity today either, I had to fix our upstairs toilet.

UGH!

Thu, Nov13, 2025

Starting off the Train Order Board with Sequence Train #1

EB Mixed Freight Train 5C set up

Entering Sequence Train Start Up Date: 11.13.25

Sequence Train #1 is the EB Mixed Freight Train 5C

The Power I've chosen to pull this train is Power B3
DC UP SD40-2 #3571 and eventually I'll find #2056

Here's the paperwork Train Cars in Consist that shows
which cars I'll be pulling and tracking the time spent
on the railroad

I'm pulling the front (5Cf) part of the train out of
PYCNW Track 1. The rear (5Cr) part of the train is
located on Track 5 with the cabooses waiting on
yard throat for pick up after the train is put together

See the Weekly Layout Update YouTube video in Saturday's entry

to see this train & locomotive in action during set up.